A key element is me lying on the floor beside her cot. I put a collection of small pillows behind my head. Anna usually confirms I will be lying down, explaining to me: "Daddy. Pillows." And then I sing. Some of you will appreciate that I am likely doing more harm than good to poor Anna's future as a musician, but I like singing to someone who clearly doesn't care that fewer than half of the notes are remotely in tune.
I also have a pretty small repertoire of songs. I have Twinkle, Twinkle. It's an old standby, but reliable and appropriate for going to bed. I can pull of Ba, Ba, Black sheep and know enough versus of Mary Had a Little Lamb to fill a couple of minutes. It ends a little abruptly but both Anna and I are comfortable with my ending. Thanks to many campfires and a Raffi CD that gets too much airplay in the car, I can also 'sing' Kumbaya. I won't lie, it's a favourite.
My last and most accomplished song is one my mother used to sing to me when I was young. Away in a Manger. I have received a certain degree of ridicule for singing this song as a year-round bedtime song. The other day, a certain Lindsay Atkinson asked if I followed it up with Jingle Bells or I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. It has since occurred to me that I do know a number of Christmas songs. Certainly more Christmas songs than lullabies. I am now waiting for the official word that Christmas season has begun to broaden my repertoire: North American retail. I figure if I drag Christmas tunes out til mid January, I should get a good 2, 2.5 months out of them.
Anna, however, has gotten used to our little routine. Just tonight, she was pretending to put Rupert and Teddy Bear to bed (Rupert was my teddy and Teddy Bear is from Vince and Cristina) and I started to sing Away in a Manger. I wasn't half way through the first line and Anna's thumb was in her mouth and she lay down. Ange and I laughed. She got up. I started singing again. She lay down. It still makes me smile.
A photo from the weekend, where we met Lindsay and Mike in the Cotswalds (Bourton-on-the-Water)... just before the Christmas song teasing:
And, "I like ice cream!":
1 comment:
So cute! I was singing songs with Olivia recently, and found my repertoire was quite short too. We ended up doing a round of Jingle Bells, quite a few of Up On The Housetop, and finished off with an old favourite- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus :)
I think it's fantastic you're singing to her...
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